With the holidays and other "stuff" crimping our lives of late, this will be more thought exercise than post. By that we mean we will not be posting as many links as usual but will rely mostly on observations and extrapolations made from past posts. Call it a thought exercise if you will. Besides we have spent a considerable amount of time in past posts linking certain truths. Keywords and search ideas can be found to the left by our search box.The other day when consumer confidence was reported as being higher than significant periods in the past we were experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance. After all, at the same time Sears was announcing the closure of many stores, read that numerous lost jobs. And as we search the web daily we have been particularly struck by recent layoff numbers. Most especially in the financial sector. Our thoughts might be that financial layoffs do not show up as quickly in the economy, as many have the capability to withstand immediate consequences and it does not resonate as say a factory closing. The consequences of which are almost immediately felt in the community.
The other disconnect that we have discussed with others is that the majority of the U.S. population has little comprehension of what real money and power is. There are individuals and Corporations, ex. Apple, Inc., that have enough wealth to be their own country. Money creates money. We all know that. But somewhere along the line we allowed ourselves to become convinced that the created money "trickles" down to the general population. Nothing can be further from the truth. The goal of people with real wealth is to "preserve capital". Although most of the people we know would lose money if they retired on a 3% return. Economies of scale dictate that enough money at 3 precent can be a comfortable income if that 3% is calculated on large enough stash of cash.
